The Bongos: Not Just for Hipster Poets in Coffee Shops!

Ryan Burnette

They are an instrument that most people know about, and at least a lot of people can
recognize when heard or seen. (though they are often mistaken for congas…) But while we all
know and love the bongos, nobody ever really asks where exactly they come from. So I did,
because I was curious. Everyone (hopefully) knows they come from African and Latin American
origins, but the bongos have a really neat history.

But before we can get into the backstory, what exactly are the bongos? They are a pair
of small hand drums, attached side-by-side, always consisting of two drums. The larger one,
the hembra, is of a lower pitch than the smaller macho, partly due to the thinner drumhead used
in most sets of bongos. The hembra will often only have one layer of skin (usually goat or
donkey, traditionally) while the macho has a two, giving it a punchier and higher sound. They
are played with the hands, or in modern settings, often with drumsticks, and may either be
mounted on a stand, or held the traditional way between the thighs, so that the sides of the
drums rest on your calves while you play, seated. There are a lot of different sounds you can
make on the bongos, a few of which are very similar to those used with other hand drums, such
as the congas or the djembe.

The open tone is probably the easiest sound to produce on the bongos. You just hit the
drum head on the edge, with most of your hand hitting the drum. It gives you a very open, plain
sound. Then you have bass tones, usually used on the hembra, which is where you hit the drum
in the middle of the head, usually with the palm of your hand. Next you have the slap, which is
used mostly on the macho, and there are many ways to get a slap on the bongos. The muted
slap is very common, and is performed by pressing your left thumb into the drumhead, and
hitting the very edge of the drum with your right hand’s middle two-three fingers. This gives you
a very crisp and high-pitched popping sound. Another slap that is very commonly used is the
same kind used on the congas; you cup your hand and let your fingers fall hard onto the rim of
the drum, getting a higher sound, though not as high as the muted slap, and not nearly as high
as a finger slap. You can also try this without the thumb on the drum head, as well as other
hand movements, such as flipping your hand over, so that your fingernails are hitting the drum.
This gives a very different tambour from the finger slaps. You can also use a very common
technique called the heel-toe or skin tone, where you place your hand on the drum and rock it
back and forth, so that it is very lightly hitting the drum each time either the heel of your palm or
the top of your palm and fingers hits the drum. You can also do a of of neat little tricks by hitting
the drums with your fingers, fists, or the tips of your fingernails; the sky’s the limit and these little
drums have a lot of variety, when utilized well.

Often times, the macho drum will be used primarily as the main voice, with the hembra
providing bassier support tones, especially during solo performance. In traditional music, the
bongos are actually not played the entire time and the bongocero, or bongo player, will switch to
a cowbell to play a clave rhythm (either on actual claves or on a type of cowbell called a
campana) during louder parts of the music, since the bongos are a softer instrument that
doesn’t cut as clearly through louder groups.
The Bongos: Not Just for Hipster Poets in Coffee Shops!
Ryan Burnette

So what is all this tradition I keep referring to? Well, the bongos have a very hazy origin,
but were first seen in Cuba around 1850 or so, and really took off in the 1900s as a popular
instrument in many kinds of groups. However, the roots of the bongos are tied into the Changüi
and Son genres of Afro-Cuban music, when the two cultures began to merge as a result of the
abolition of slavery. The basic pattern of the Son style of music is the Martillo, a simple four beat
pattern mostly on the macho drum, with the hembra marking the fourth beat of each measure of
music. While simple and basic in nature, this is actually where a lot of truly amazing bongoceros
can show off their hard-earned skills, as the Martillo is highly improvisational, even more so than
most bongo patterns, and as long as the beat is held down, you can deviate from the pattern in
a lot of interesting and exciting ways.

However, around the 1950s, when bongos became more widespread in the jazz world
and the early days of rock and roll, the traditional ways were blended into the Western drumset
playing style and from there we got bongo stands and players who use drumsticks, or even go
as far as to add a set of bongos onto their drumset, so they can play both at the same time. And
at the same time (in fact, a little earlier) the bongos were being used in the newly developing
contemporary percussion scene in America and Europe, in pieces such as Iannis Xenakis’
“Rebonds” and “Psappha” (1980s), John Cage’s “27’ 10.554 for a Percussionist” (1956), Morton
Feldman’s “King of Denmark” (1950s), and Edgard Varèse’s “Ionization,” (1923). And still today,
they are in common use by Western classical percussionists, either through contemporary solo
works, jazz, or even larger ensemble music, often times, and sometimes even in the traditional
sense, when classically trained percussionists decide to study further into the music of other
cultures, and take up the instrument in the way it was originally played- like me!

In short, the bongos are a really cool instrument with a rich and diverse history from their
little-known origins all the way up through the world of latin grooves, on to jazz, then making
their way through the contemporary Western music scene, all while retaining their humble roots
and charm. Plus, they’re just so much fun to play, I can’t even picture someone looking at a set
of bongos and saying, “Wow, those look boring and it would be totally unsatisfying to mess
around with them for at least a good fifteen minutes.” Nobody says things like that, bongos are
universally awesome.
The Bongos: Not Just for Hipster Poets in Coffee Shops!
Ryan Burnette

Playing Examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNQgO75frw8 Carlos Caro Street Performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-G1OrKujks Karl Perazzo Jazz Improvisation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVUXXzQfxYw “Bongo Beats” Cover of Santana’s “Black
Magic Woman”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcR508UiKNY Salsa Blanca Mini-Concert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCY3q2mE-kY&t=634s Dance Papi’s “Basic Martillo
Pattern” Bongo Lesson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm2XQrio0QE Luis Conte Bongo Solo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEtEMpphMK0 “Bong-0” by Robert Sierta, Contemporary
Bongo Solo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC-Ncsiuq68 “Wicca” by Casey Cangelosi, Contemporary
Multiple Percussion Solo Featuring Bongos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQZJrULaqDM “SarahTDrumGuru” Cover of “Señorita”
(This list of links needed some bongoceras in here too! Considering how many women we have
in the world of Western percussion, I’m shocked at how few videos I could find featuring women
playing bongos!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwBL_Ml-yzI Traditional Cuban Son Music and Dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9In-XlvdpvM Traditional Cuban Changüi Music